Strange times
The Digital Sector Melvin Kaabwe When lockdown restrictions were eased after SABA engagements with Government, fewer customers flocked to Bookstores than to Liquor retailers! Strange times indeed! Online sales of physical books are continuing to grow but less rapidly, and likely peaked in August. The sale of e-books was higher than usual across Academic and […]
SABA Conference and AGM
Please join the 2020 SABA virtual conference and AGM – follow the link to the programme here and the link to register here.
Melinda Ferguson publishes two e-books during lockdown
With lockdown biting hard in the bookselling business, publisher Melinda Ferguson was determined not to just sit by and watch. Shortly before the first lockdown, Prof Pumla Dineo Gqola joked on the publisher’s WhatsApp group about writing a ‘coronavirus book’, and so the idea was born: all 17 writers on the group were challenged by […]
The Netflix of Books Lands in SA
South African bookworms rejoice! Bookchoice – the ‘Netflix of books’ – is finally on our shores. Now it’s as easy to get a great book as it is to stream a series. For R50 a month, you can receive a monthly delivery of eight curated ebooks and audiobooks, handpicked by a team of industry experts. […]
Facebook’s App problem
“Facebook is part of an industry that fetishizes seamlessness and supposed user-friendliness over privacy and transparency. By characterizing these connected services as “apps,” Facebook encourages us to sign our data away with a click in the name of seamless design–and rarely gives us a chance to object. That practice is now playing out in disastrous […]
SA Booksellers Bookselling Programme
The SA Booksellers Association is proud to announce the completion of an online Bookseller’s Programme. The association has worked with Tuit, an online learning service provider, to publish the learning material online. The courses are now ready and available via the Tuit online course shop at Bookselling course There are a total of 11 courses […]
Copyright Amendment Bill, No 13 of 2017:
Will the goal of updating the law for the Internet Age sacrifice creative industry instead? In December it will be 20 years since South Africa signed international copyright treaties to bring its copyright laws into the digital age. South Africa has still not ratified these treaties and the Copyright Act has not been amended to […]
Frankfurt – On BD, VR, AR, Millenials and Hyperinnovation
As a Frankfurt BookFair Business Club 2017 Ambassador I had the opportunity to work with the Fair organisers on creating unique experiences for some important visitors in Frankfurt this year. I was the only African representative. In the Business Club, I found many of the discussions applicable as learning experiences for the South African Book […]
10 year anniversary for the Kindle
November 19 2017 marked the 10th anniversary of the first Kindle. What’s easy to forget, Vice President of Kindle content David Naggar says, was the sheer wireless convenience introduced by the Kindle. “It wasn’t the hardware itself,” he says, “that caused the Kindle to explode all of a sudden, or that it came from Amazon. […]
Digital Census – insights
Print and e-book sales are on the rise, while audiobook sales are seeing rapid growth despite being largely untapped by most publishers, according to early results from The Bookseller’s Digital Census, the annual tracker of the digital transformation run annually ahead of the FutureBook Conference. Just over half of UK publishers have seen growth in […]
The Futurebook programme
More than 50 speakers from across the publishing, retail and entertainment industries will address delegates at December’s FutureBook Conference. The event, to be held in London on 1st December, also includes dedicated conferences on the AudioBook and EdTech markets. Topics under discussion on the day will include how best to capture and retain new readers, […]
A veritable smorgasbord
The impact of digital technologies continues to be felt by booksellers. It is no longer a fear of digital taking over as it is a necessity for traditional bricks and mortar operations to adapt to the changes brought on by digital in terms of customer expectations. Customers expect experiences that reflect the use of these […]
Amazon’s bookstores
In a question and answer period with analysts following the release of its results for 2016, Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky touched on why the online giant has opened bookstores and other physical stores. “We think the bookstores for instance are a really great way for customers to engage with our devices and see them, touch […]
Frankfurt, a digital perspective
Frankfurt was abuzz this year with a variety of talking points for publishers, booksellers and related stakeholders all facing an exciting new phase in the evolving story of human-kinds finest invention, the book. The guest of honour this year was the Netherlands and Flanders region. I was most pleased to see the vast array and […]
Platform Wars
Google vs Microsoft vs Apple “Since the Apple IIe desktop computer found a home in California schools in the 80’s, ushering in the era of the classroom PC, Apple and Microsoft have vied for the attention of American students. With the introduction of the iPad in 2010, Apple had a tool poised to displace the […]
‘If we lose our celebrated bookshops and our libraries we will never improve our nation’s literacy’
Baroness Gail Rebuck, chair of Penguin Random House UK, delivered an educated and insightful speech on Thursday 13th October as part of a debate in the House of Lords, where Lord Bird moved that the House of Lords take “note of the cultural, civic and educational significance of local libraries and independent bookshops in the […]
Digital developments – E-books and e-learning materials
By Melvin Kaabwe. The year saw a further investment by Gauteng into e-learning solutions and an expanded tablet roll-out for public k-12 (basic education) schools. In the private sector, all the chain k-12 education providers continue to improve their own versions of e-learning with emphasis on additonal Learning Teacher Student Materials (LTSM) whilst upskilling teachers […]
Hello square eyes
Although we may be watching slightly less television per day than we did in 2000, our eyes, in the words of our mothers, are definitely still getting squarer. According to We Are Social 2015, South Africans are now spending twice as much time again on web-based media as they do viewing television. Online video views […]
Digital Book World
The Digital Book World conference took place in March and though the printed book was very much the prom queen, the four major American tech companies of our age were likened to the four horsemen of the Apocalypse of the event.
Digital Book World on the persistance of physical books
Today is the final day of the Digital Book World conference in New York City. Lucky for those of us who could not attend, the Publishing Perspectives team was there and Porter Anderson has and will be posting insightful pieces on the take home points from the conference. Interestingly enough, the feedback from the first […]